NASA wants to photograph the surface of an exoplanet

[FfFfFfFF 58,081]

It wasn't that long ago that the only known planets in our galaxy were those orbiting our own sun. But over the past few decades, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets and concluded that they outnumber the stars in our galaxy.

Last week, NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concept program announced its new cohort of scientists who will spend the next year developing space mission concepts that sound like they were plucked straight from science fiction.

Among this year’s NIAC grants are proposals to turn a lunar crater into a giant radio dish, to develop an antimatter deceleration system, and to map the inside of an asteroid. But the most eye-popping concept of the bunch was advanced by Slava Turyshev, a physicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who wants to photograph an exoplanet by using the sun as a giant camera lens. 

Snapping photos of our extraterrestrial neighbors is an enticing idea, but the technological challenges involved with this mission are staggering.  

It’s a lot to ask of a mission, but Turyshev believes the necessary technologies have matured enough to make it possible. Reusable rockets have drastically reduced the cost of space access. Small satellites are regularly used for sophisticated deep space missions. The Voyager spacecraft are alive and well in interstellar space. Solar sails have unfurled on multiple missions. And we’re on the cusp of assembling telescopes in space.

“We think we can do the observation with the technology we have now,” Turyshev says.

Full article: https://www.wired.com/story/nasa-wants-to-photograph-the-surface-of-an-exoplanet/

[dit 46,738]

they want to but can they do it. That is the question  (I hope so!)

[dynamite 66,566]

And I can barely make toast....

[COOOK 76,406]

Who wouldn't! 

[hijadeputa 4,050]

Cool!!! But the fact that even If they take a pic, the planet will have changed extremely much since it takes thousands lf years to get there. It’s like someone would take a pic of Earth from another point of the universe, they would see another point of earths timeline, not present 

[Nemo 4,410]

24 minutes ago, GNZAREVILO said:

Cool!!! But the fact that even If they take a pic, the planet will have changed extremely much since it takes thousands lf years to get there. It’s like someone would take a pic of Earth from another point of the universe, they would see another point of earths timeline, not present 

They'd probably start with Proxima Centauri. It has an exoplanet, and it's only four light years away, so we'd be seeing it as it was four years ago.

[TOSK 640]

20 minutes ago, Nemo said:

and it's only four light years away, so we'd be seeing it as it was four years ago.

Let’s assume that you’re riding on a spacecraft at the same speed of the New Horizons probe, which goes at an incredible speed of 36,373 mph, or Mach 47. To see how long it would take us to travel a light year, we must first have to know what a light-year is. A light-year has an exagerated distance of about 6 trillion miles.

This is going to sound unrealistic, however, it’s the truth. It would take you little under 20,000 years, to travel just 1 light-year. Let’s say that you want to travel to Kepler 438b, which is over 400 light-years away. If you wanted to travel there in the fastest spacecraft made by man (New Horizons), it would take you about 2 million years.

https://www.quora.com/How-long-would-it-take-a-spacecraft-to-travel-one-light-year

 

[mister max 18,480]

17 minutes ago, TOSK said:

Let’s assume that you’re riding on a spacecraft at the same speed of the New Horizons probe, which goes at an incredible speed of 36,373 mph, or Mach 47. To see how long it would take us to travel a light year, we must first have to know what a light-year is. A light-year has an exagerated distance of about 6 trillion miles.

This is going to sound unrealistic, however, it’s the truth. It would take you little under 20,000 years, to travel just 1 light-year. Let’s say that you want to travel to Kepler 438b, which is over 400 light-years away. If you wanted to travel there in the fastest spacecraft made by man (New Horizons), it would take you about 2 million years.

https://www.quora.com/How-long-would-it-take-a-spacecraft-to-travel-one-light-year

 

I think the user was talking about the fact that the light needs 4 years to get to us from Proxima centauri hence if we take a picture now, it will be how proxima centauri was 4 years ago

[mister max 18,480]

This is incredibly cool and the lunar crater as a giant radio dish sound intriging too

[pachinko 10,753]

Is Pluto really no longer a planet?

[Bloody 64,632]

13 minutes ago, pachinko said:

Is Pluto really no longer a planet?

it's a "dwarf" planet, not one of the main ones anymore.

[StarstruckIllusion 53,563]

2 hours ago, FfFfFfFF said:

It wasn't that long ago that the only known planets in our galaxy were those orbiting our own sun. But over the past few decades, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets and concluded that they outnumber the stars in our galaxy.

Last week, NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concept program announced its new cohort of scientists who will spend the next year developing space mission concepts that sound like they were plucked straight from science fiction.

Among this year’s NIAC grants are proposals to turn a lunar crater into a giant radio dish, to develop an antimatter deceleration system, and to map the inside of an asteroid. But the most eye-popping concept of the bunch was advanced by Slava Turyshev, a physicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who wants to photograph an exoplanet by using the sun as a giant camera lens. 

Snapping photos of our extraterrestrial neighbors is an enticing idea, but the technological challenges involved with this mission are staggering.  

It’s a lot to ask of a mission, but Turyshev believes the necessary technologies have matured enough to make it possible. Reusable rockets have drastically reduced the cost of space access. Small satellites are regularly used for sophisticated deep space missions. The Voyager spacecraft are alive and well in interstellar space. Solar sails have unfurled on multiple missions. And we’re on the cusp of assembling telescopes in space.

“We think we can do the observation with the technology we have now,” Turyshev says.

Full article: https://www.wired.com/story/nasa-wants-to-photograph-the-surface-of-an-exoplanet/

!?!??!??!!!!!
 

What. THE. ****. 

Astronomy is BEYONDDD cool 😭😭😭😭

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

I feel exposed, they better not photograph my cheeks

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Bloody said:

it's a "dwarf" planet, not one of the main ones anymore.

Sailor Pluto will get her revenge. 

[Yxilon 5,248]

we already have a pic of an exoplanet tho, y'all at NASA are L8 wake up!